The north’s ‘foreign minister’ Tahsin Ertugruloglu on Tuesday night reiterated his demand for a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem to the Turkish Cypriot legislature as it deliberated his ‘ministry’s’ budget.
He claimed that “the vast majority of the Turkish Cypriot people believe in the policy of two sovereign states” and that at October’s Turkish Cypriot leadership election, where two-state solution advocate Ersin Tatar was routed by pro-federation candidate Tufan Erhurman, the Cyprus problem was “not on the agenda”.
“Even a child on the street knows very well that foreign policy was not on the people’s agenda when they went to the polls on October 19,” he said, adding that “the people know very well what priorities they went to the polls with”.
He added that “at least 70 or 80 per cent of the Turkish Cypriot people believe” in a two-state solution to the Cyprus problem, though in October, Erhurman won 62.8 per cent of the vote and Tatar won 35.8 per cent.
Erhurman responded to Ertugruloglu in a social media post later on Tuesday night, saying that he had invited Ertugruloglu to his official residence but that “he did not return my call”.
“That is no problem at all, however. I will invite Ertugruloglu at the first opportunity, and I am sure that we will exchange views in a civilised environment, as always. Ertugruloglu will continue to criticise me. Everyone knows that I am open to all kinds of criticism and that I always try to benefit from it. Therefore, I am not at all bothered by this,” he said.
In the legislature, Ertugruloglu received criticism from ‘MPs’, with Dogus Derya of opposition party the CTP asking him whether he agrees with Turkish nationalist political party MHP leader Devlet Bahceli’s demands in the aftermath of October’s election that the north join the Republic of Turkey.
His response was what while he is “a Turkish nationalist” and he has “never hidden” that fact, he is “not someone who supports the policy of Turkey annexing the TRNC”.
“Turkey itself does not have a policy of annexing the TRNC. Turkey does not need such a thing,” he said.
Armagan Candan, also of the CTP, also took issue with Ertugruloglu’s statements, describing October’s election as “very important”.
“With this election, the Turkish Cypriot people have been pulled back rom the brink,” he said, adding that Turkish Cypriots have been “isolated from the world for the last five years” under Ersin Tatar’s leadership but that “with a strong election result, they have shown that they do not accept this situation”.
“The Turkish Cypriot people said, ‘I do not want to live under this status’,” he said, before later commenting that “international actors” are now also demanding results on the Cyprus problem.
“They have begun to say that the method which emerges from now on must lead us to a result. The alternative is unacceptable, and neither Cyprus nor international politics can tolerate it again,” he said.
“If there is to be another attempt at a solution this time, it will be one which produces results. We will not be involved in an effort which will not yield results.”
Later in the evening, CTP secretary-general Erkut Sahali also rubbished the ‘foreign ministry’s’ budget text’s assertion that a federal solution is an “exhausted formula”.
“We do not have any experience where we can say that the federal formula was tried but the conditions of a federation could not be maintained and it failed for that reason. If the search for a federation ended in failure, the determining factor was not the federal principles themselves, but the lack of political leadership and will which should have been shown on the path to federation,” he said.
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